Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 49.76
Liaison Aurora Sharrard
Submission Date Feb. 28, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University of Pittsburgh
OP-8: Sustainable Dining

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.88 / 2.00 Nick Goodfellow
Sustainability Coordinator
Dining Services
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1: Sustainable Dining Initiatives 

Sustainable Dining Policy

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have a published sustainable dining policy?:
Yes

A brief description of the sustainable dining policy:
Mission and goals from the Pitt Sustainability Plan “food systems” section. Mission: We will strive to build a food system that supports a healthy body and healthy planet, strengthens local communities, and minimizes waste. Goals: 1) Support a local, fair, ecologically sound, and humane food system by expanding the Real Food Challenge across campus to serve 25% Real Food by 2025, 2) Serve 50% of to-go meals and beverages in reusable containers by 2025, and 3) Serve meals that put plants at the center of the plate by decreasing the amount of animal-derived products sold by 25% by 2025. An additional goal in the Pitt Sustainability Plan is to compost 50% of food waste by 2025.

On-Campus Sourcing 

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor source food from a campus garden or farm?:
No

A brief description of the program to source food from a campus garden or farm:
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Local Community Engagement 

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor host a farmers market, community supported agriculture (CSA) or fishery program, and/or urban agriculture project, or support such a program in the local community?:
Yes

A brief description of the farmers market, CSA or urban agriculture project:
Sodexo Dining Services and the Office of PittServes work together to host a weekly farmer’s market on campus that allows student, faculty, and staff to purchase local products. Through this partnership students are able to use their meal plans to purchase food from the farmer’s market. The market is entering its fourth season and is becoming more and more popular with students, faculty, staff, and the community.

Vegan Dining Program 

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have a vegan dining program that makes diverse, complete-protein vegan options available to every member of the campus community at every meal?:
Yes

A brief description of the vegan dining program:
In January 2017 Sodexo partnered with students to launch the Veg Collective, a group of students and Sodexo staff that collaborate on plant-based dining on campus. Through regular meetings, the group finds ways to expand the plant-based dining program across campus. In March 2017 the Humane Society held a vegan culinary training with 20 of our chefs and cooks and in April 2017 we launched a pop-up 100% plant-based (vegan) station serving lunch and dinner every day in our largest dining hall. The pop-up, name Forward Food as an ode to the HSUS training program, was a hit and the station became a permanent fixture in the dining hall in the 17/18 school year. The Veg Collective continues to work on expanding plant-based option on campus and in 17/18 has already made 20 changes to Sodexo’s dining service on campus. Diners can find fulfilling vegan options in any of the dining halls or cafeterias on campus.

Low-Impact Dining Events 

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor host low impact dining events (e.g. Meatless Mondays)?:
Yes

A brief description of the low impact dining events:
Our largest dining hall on campus participates in Meatless Monday but without advertising it - we just don’t serve meat at certain stations on Monday!

Sustainability-Themed Meals 

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor host sustainability-themed meals (e.g. local harvest dinners)?:
Yes

A brief description of the sustainability-themed meals:
Although we do not host regularly-occurring sustainability-themed meals we do have occasional plant-based meals to educate students about how delicious plant-based meals can be. We also have started having Real Food meals in which Real Food Challenge students help write the menu using Real Food products then engage with students about the ingredients.

Sustainability-Themed Outlet 

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor host a sustainability-themed food outlet on-site, either independently or in partnership with a contractor or retailer?:
No

A brief description of the sustainability-themed food outlet:
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Labeling and Signage 

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor inform customers about low impact food choices and sustainability practices through labeling and signage in dining halls?:
Yes

A brief description of the sustainability labeling and signage in dining halls:
We have begun experimenting with labeling plant-based meals using the Veg Collective logo. Vegan, vegetarian, or plants-at-the-center-of-the-plate meals sport the Veg Collective logo to identify that this dish is Veg Collective-approved. This also helps to build the Veg Collective “brand” and to link this effort with student input since the Veg Collective is a student-driven initiative.

Outreach and Education 

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor engage in outreach efforts to support learning and research about sustainable food systems?:
Yes

A brief description of the outreach efforts to support learning and research about sustainable food systems:
Since the University of Pittsburgh does not have an agriculture or food systems program, we do try to engage students to provide some outside-the-classroom learning opportunities. We are always open to class partnerships and in the past have opened up our dishrooms to engineering students and given our food waste audit data to class projects. We also organize annual field trips to our local distributor’s warehouse and occasionally bring farmers to campus to speak with students in the dining halls about their produce.

Other Initiatives 

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have other sustainability-related initiatives (e.g. health and wellness initiatives, making culturally diverse options available)?:
Yes

A brief description of the other sustainability-related dining initiatives:
The Sodexo Dining Services nutrition intern regularly prepares educational materials for diners to help them navigate the numerous tempting options on campus. We also work with student groups and parents to ensure we’re serving culturally diverse options on campus for our diners from all over the world.

Part 2: Food and Dining Waste 

Food Recovery Program

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor participate in a competition or commitment program and/or use a food waste prevention system to track and improve its food management practices?:
Yes

A brief description of the food recovery competition or commitment program or food waste prevention system:
Although we have no method or system for tracking food waste daily we do conduct food waste audits of our two dining halls each semester.

Trayless Dining and Portion Modifications 

Has the institution or its primary dining services contractor implemented trayless dining (in which trays are removed from or not available in dining halls) and/or modified menus/portions to reduce post-consumer food waste?:
Yes

A brief description of the trayless dining or modified menu/portion program:
Our trayless dining program was implemented in 2008 and led to a dramatic reduction in food waste. More recently during a food waste audit one of our chefs noted how many of our pre-plated options were returned partially eaten. He decided to switch to smaller plates and to move our service to more of a tapas-style to allow students to try more options without having to take a plate with a dish that they would not like to eat. This began in November but we have not been able to measure the impact of the change.

Food Donation 

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor donate food that would otherwise go to waste to feed people?:
Yes

A brief description of the food donation program:
Our campus food recovery effort began in 2015 after a year of negotiations with Sodexo Dining Services to allow food recovery on campus. Students now recover food from seven different dining locations on campus: two dining halls, the Petersen Events Center, and four retail establishments. Since the students began recovering in 2015 we’ve recovered and donated more than 22,000 lbs of food from campus to local hunger-fighting agencies. In 2016 our campus became the first in the ACC to be Food Recovery Verified by the Food Recovery Network.

Food Materials Diversion 

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor divert food materials from the landfill, incinerator or sewer for animal feed or industrial uses (e.g. converting cooking oil to fuel, on-site anaerobic digestion)?:
Yes

A brief description of the food materials diversion program:
Cooking oil from all campus facilities is collected by companies and converted into fuel. One of the companies is a local alternative fuel company called Fossil Free Fuels in Braddock, PA (less than 5 miles from campus).

Composting 

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have a pre-consumer composting program?:
No

A brief description of the pre-consumer composting program:
---

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have a post-consumer composting program?:
No

A brief description of the post-consumer composting program:
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Dine-In Service Ware 

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor utilize reusable service ware for “dine in” meals?:
Yes

A brief description of the reusable service ware program:
Reusable service ware is the only option for diners at our two dining halls which serve roughly one third of the meals consumed on campus each day.

Take-Away Materials 

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor provide reusable and/or third party certified compostable containers and service ware for “to-go” meals (in conjunction with an on-site composting program)?:
No

A brief description of the compostable containers and service ware:
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Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor offer discounts or other incentives to customers who use reusable containers (e.g. mugs) instead of disposable or compostable containers in “to-go” food service operations?:
Yes

A brief description of the reusable container discount or incentives program:
The BYO[Mug] program encourages customers to use reusable mugs in place of single-use disposable mugs. Customers pay 99c for coffee or tea in their reusable mug (limit 24oz) and receive a 25c discount on espresso drinks when using a reusable mug. About 15% of sales for coffee or tea beverages are for reusable mugs. Since we started tracking reusable mug usage we’ve found we prevent about 22,000 single-use mugs from being used on campus each semester. We have also been testing a reusable to-go container program using the OZZI machine in one of our dining locations and hope to take the program campus-wide in the next year or so. Currently students pay $5 to buy into the program and save 10c each meal when using the containers. Our goal is to serve half of our to-go meals and beverages in reusable containers by 2025.

Other Materials Management Initiatives 

Has the institution or its primary dining services contractor implemented other materials management initiatives to minimize waste not covered above (e.g. working with vendors and other entities to reduce waste from food packaging)?:
Yes

A brief description of other dining services materials management initiatives:
The BYO[bag] program which launched in September 2015 has prevented more than 1 million single-use plastic bags from being used on campus. The student initiative uses a 25c bag fee and an educational campaign to encourage customers to “bring your own bag.” Prior to the program the Oakland campus used 15,000 plastic bags per week. Since the program began we’ve reduced plastic bag usage by an average of 95%, down to around 400 bags per week. Half of the proceeds from the fee are donated to the Pitt Green Fund to support other student sustainability initiatives like this on campus.

Optional Fields 

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
http://www.pc.pitt.edu/dining/sustainability.php

Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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